OpenView Revamp Boosts Business, IT Connections

HP is making strides in adaptive services and change management with new OpenView software that streamlines deployment, emphasizes data sharing, and strengthens the ties between business and IT.

Hewlett-Packard Co. is making strides in adaptive services and change management with new OpenView software that streamlines deployment, emphasizes data sharing, and strengthens the ties between business and IT.
At its Software Universe conference in Madrid, Spain, next week, HP will unveil Version 5.0 of its OpenView Service Desk and OpenView Service Level Manager, sources close to the Palo Alto, Calif., company said. HP will also show off OpenView Automation Manager, the first product derived from the integration of technology HP acquired with Consera Inc. and Novadigm Inc., company officials said.

In both Service Desk and Service Level Manager, HP is adding preconfigured reporting for each module, an enhanced common configuration management database, a new WebStart streamlined deployment module and a Web-based GUI, according to sources familiar with the plans.

The enhanced reporting addresses a weakness in OpenView Service Desk, and the Web-based GUI goes a long way toward delivering more self-help for users, said user Joan Kellams, who is manager of the IT support center at Advance Transformer Co., in Rosemont, Ill. "More status updates and [simpler trouble] tickets for end users would be nice," Kellams said.
Click here to read more about HPs Adaptive Enterprise strategy.
The new Service Level Manager also simplifies service-level-agreement creation through a new graphic SLA designer. Monitoring SLA compliance is also streamlined through a new compliance dashboard and new reporting capabilities.
The new Automation Manager marks HPs first effort to compete directly with IBM Tivoli Intelligent Orchestrator. It draws on the modeling and desired-state management from Novadigms change management technology, along with process definition and business intelligence capabilities from the Consera tools, the sources said.
The OpenView improvements are part of HPs effort to promote managing IT as a service and linking it to the business to improve responsiveness to changing requirements. That adaptive management message resonates for OpenView Service Desk users at Advance Transformer.
"Businesses are looking for IT to deliver services and scale without adding more overhead," said Julius Tomei, Advance Transformers director of IT. "With OpenView, as we roll out applications and services, I dont have to increase staff. I have systems and tools in place that allow people who are resolving issues to quickly get the right person to the right point in the least time."
HPs initiative represents "leadership work" among the four largest enterprise management playersTivoli, Computer Associates International Inc., BMC Software Inc. and HP, said Debra Curtis, an analyst at Gartner Inc., in Amherst, N.H.
"Its still very early with this, and it is still primarily a services playit requires a lot of customizationbut I do think it provides a big opportunity for them to cross that chasm between IT and the business," said Curtis. "It is not an out-of-the-box, automatic solution, but it shows good vision."
HP officials declined to comment on the OpenView changes in advance of the companys announcement. The news comes as HP OpenView officials tout revenue gains of 26 percent last year, accounting for some 23.5 percent of the worldwide market for distributed performance and availability management software.
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